Three Assassins: Women, Revolution and Violence in Modern World History

This thesis examines three women who committed the unprecedented crime of attempting to assassinate a key male figure in three separate times and places. It involves the government’s and society’s reaction and implications about the role of gender in the violent deeds transforming society at times of revolutionary upheaval. The women examined are Charlotte Corday from eighteenth century France, Vera Zasulich from nineteenth century Russia, and Shi Jianqiao from twentieth century China. These women shared numerous qualities that, when combined, provided the women with the ability to see themselves as equals in the patriarchal societies in which they lived, allowing them to participate in the typically male dominated public sphere.